Lacrosse is a way of life. It might not be the most popular sport around but it’s the best. Lacrosse requires speed, agility, strength, a quick mind and lots of teamwork— in short, it requires the ultimate athlete.

After a long practice, there’s seldom anything better than funny videos of lacrosse mishaps or a fight of one-punch bouts. Aside from entertainment and technique, there’s a lot to be learned and applied to everyday life. Here’s what I’ve learned about life from lacrosse fights:

Everybody Hits

From little checks to big hits, lacrosse — like life —is a physical game, so you can’t be afraid to assert yourself. Expect that people are going to come at you with a purpose and be ready to take control and go on the offensive (metaphorically speaking). In life, the little jabs and checks often go unnoticed or unpunished, like a co-worker taking credit for an idea or suggesting you didn’t do your job well in front of a superior. You need to have a good sense of judgment as to what to let pass and what warrants retaliation. Please, don’t take that to mean, you can punch guys wherever you go for no apparent reason. Remember, the punishment should fit the crime and be careful to avoid situations where negative behaviors escalate rapidly.

Dress to Impress? Back It Up!

If you’re going to preen like a peacock, you’d must be ready to be a target for the other team. By setting yourself apart from the pack, whether with neon pink Nikes or a slick new suit and tie, you’re drawing attention to yourself as a dominant member of the pack. If you announce with your demeanor that you’re the full-blooded heterosexual type, you’d better have the mettle to maintain that status. Not only will you be tested by your peers, you might be unseated. Paul Dawson might be wearing pink but he’s not going to turn the other cheek or fight like a lady, as evidenced below.

Pinnie Pride

When you wear the uniform you represent the entire team, so demand respect from your fellow comrades. Sometimes you have to stand up on behalf of your mates, on the field and off. Same goes in the real world, save your internal disputes for the appropriate time and place. When you’re up against the rest of the world you’d better have your team’s back. In the real world, there are plenty of institutions dedicated to ensuring justice or fair treatment— human resources, courts, and so on — but the systems don’t always work. Sometimes you have to make the world take notice and start caring and sometimes you just have to handle things yourself. Sometimes the whole team gets on board to fight injustice and it gets truly epic.

Let Go!

Sometimes people just need to work through a conflict and you have to let them fight it out (usually they need to do this with their words, not their fists). At a certain point, it just needs to get handled so the drama stops interrupting the rest of us as we go about our business. Here’s a classic case of LETTING IT GO at an indoor match. Once they’ve fought it out, the players are broken up and sent to think about what they’ve done. Good advice for the real world, too.